The Hama Saga: The First Bloodbender
by KRTheBlackPearl
Summary: AU. Begins with Hama's capture and eventual imprisonment in a heavily secured Fire Nation detention center. Secretly, she discovers and perfects the darkest sub-skill of any of the known bending techniques- bloodbending, slowly losing her sanity all the while. Can a curious young guard stop her from descending into abysmal madness? Or is she doomed to suffer her canon fate?


**Okay, so I've been thinking about it for a while and have decided it's about time that Hama, a powerful yet underrated character, have her chance in the spotlight. **

**Summary: AU. This story begins with Hama's capture and eventual imprisonment in a heavily secured Fire Nation detention center. Secretly, she discovers and perfects the darkest sub-skill of any of the known bending techniques- bloodbending, slowly losing her sanity all the while. Can a curious young guard stop her from descending into abysmal madness? Or is she doomed to suffer her canon fate? **

**Hama will not be imprisoned for 'decades' as she was in the show. **

**Rated T for language and darkish themes. **

**Warning: Smexy OC in the near future…. ahehe **

**Disclaimer: I don't own SHIT (except for my badass Dodge Ram truck which unfortunately won't make an appearance in this piece *tears*)! Nor do I own Avatar: The Last Airbender or the characters. **

**Please notify me if you spot errors!**

The Hama Saga: The First Bloodbender

Prologue

The Firebenders descended upon her home like a horde of starving elephant rats would storm an unguarded buffet. They plagued her settlement with all the unfeeling, unrestrained vengeance of a frolicking virus. Whatever they touched, wherever they went, they left a trace of poison behind.

She tried to fight them. They had all tried. They had failed. There were too many of them- their numbers were astounding, crippling.

Hama ran, screaming at her neighbors to take some kind of shelter, their blue coats and heavy boots hindering any type of swift retreat. A blast of fire cut through the air, missing the top of her head by mere feet. She tripped and fell, snow filling her mouth and nose. Though there were many skilled benders in the Southern Water Tribe, they're powers were subdued without the energy of the full moon to fuel their abilities. The army had flooded the village once the sun had reached its highest point in the sky. She cursed them all, tears pooling in her eyes, and hauled herself up, pushing on to reach the gate. However, the invaders were hell bent on capturing or killing every Waterbender in the vicinity and pursued her with unparalleled intent. One shouted at her to stop, threatening bodily harm if she took another step further. Despite her aching muscles and straining lungs, her mind defied her body, chanting 'Run! Or they'll get you'._ Don't stop running. Don't stop running. _It was her silent prayer, her deafening mantra. It was so loud and all-consuming that she felt as if her skull would burst apart at the seams; she was so exhausted and drained that she could barely hear herself think the words.

She became hollow in her flight, a shell of a person just trying to escape. It was as if her spirit had given up on her for lack of athleticism and fled from her being, leaving her behind, empty. She could not save herself, her courage abandoned her. The mind-numbing adrenaline spike she had experienced after her senses had been jolted awake by a thin veil of black ash raining down upon the tribe now crept like sap in her veins. She breathed through her mouth, the air tearing her lungs and throat to shreds like grained paper.

She was thrust forward as a ball of fire struck her directly in the middle of her back. Hama sputtered as she was once again suffocating in a shallow bank of snow, ice gathered in her lungs and clogged her trachea. She felt water come up through her nose and it burned like lava in her chest. _No_, not in her chest, but on her back. She yelled, a shrill cry of fear piercing the atmosphere, barely audible in the mixture of the protests and wails of her people. Quickly she rolled onto her back, effectively depriving the fire of its scorching life force. No sooner had she moved to spring back to her feet that a Fire Nation soldier flung himself on top of her, pinning her beneath him.

She screamed for her father and her captor landed a painful blow against the side of her head. The first time she had ever been hit; coupled with the trauma she was enduring, it hurt like nothing she'd ever felt before. She hid her face beneath her hands, crying like a small child, still yelling for someone, anyone to come to her rescue. "Enough of that, brat!" The tone and bass of his voice hinted that something very predatory lurked beneath his mask, a beast she would not count herself lucky to get familiar with. She tried to distract him by kicking, one hand scratching at his impenetrable armor, the other snaking down to her waist to uncap the water skin at her hip. He fumbled to get a hold on her wrists and she felt a spark of hope when a cool liquid almost lovingly caressed her fingers. _Salvation. A way out. _

She formed a thick icicle in her grip, the water hardening into a clear solid. Using all the force and strength of a young woman with no muscle to speak of she found a soft spot above his abdomen, covered only by dark fabric, and shoved the natural weapon into his stomach. He went rigid, arching like a cat, and made inhuman noise as he clutched at the fresh wound. Something warm coated her fingers and Hama gasped, reeling her hand away from him. Blood dripped from his covered chin and he struggled to stay up. Even though her actions were undeniably justifiable, she cried for him. Her whole body shook as sobs racked her relentlessly. She clawed her way out from under him and wept, choking on her tears as she watched him die. No! He couldn't die! She held a hand to her mouth, not noticing the blood she was smearing across her smooth, dry skin which seemed all too eager to soak up the moisture. The noises of her dying people faded into the background and she reached towards the stranger, as if she could keep him from slipping into oblivion. With one last wet gurgle, he slumped over, and laid face first in the snow, dead. Gone.

Hama had killed someone. She was a murderer.

She sat for some time, mute and cold. The wind pushed her dark hair into her face and whipped it about her head like a black halo. Her empty gaze dropped to her red stained hands. She brought them up to her eyes, staring and detached. It was over. The village was surrounded. Her home was a pile of ash and melted, dirty snow. Her innocence, stolen- or rather she gave it up by taking a life to ensure that her own was spared. How selfish. She couldn't even compel herself to run; she was too mystified by the blood under her nails and buried in the crevices of her cuticles. Had she done that? She choked, and flicked her eyes around, observing ultimate destruction.

"Hama!"

_Finally_.

"Hama!"

_Just say my name one more time, please. So that I may know, even if I am in Hell, I am not alone._

"HAMA, RUN!" _Her father_. Her head snapped up, bones cracking audibly in her neck, and she stumbled almost blindly towards the sound of his voice. His pleas were so desperate, but they were music to her ears. Sweet melodies. _Not alone._

She nearly tripped over the body of her murder victim. _No, I didn't murder him. Not murder. Self-defense. _

"Daddy?" She shrieked. When was the last time she had called him that? When she was a toddler, perhaps for a few years after that?

The lean, tall form of her father burst into her shrinking field of vision. He loped towards her, casting sideways glance over his shoulder. "Run Hama! You have to get out of here-"

If he was going to say anything more, it was cut off by the heat of a blazing jet of fire. He was many yards away, but even still- Hama could feel the sweltering warmth of the attack. He was wholly consumed in a ball of fire. A scream built deep inside of her and erupted from Hama's mouth like a war cry, possibly the loudest roar of sorrow to ever plague the ears of the population of the Southern Water Tribe. If one had been there to witness it, one would be right to guess that it was the beginning of the end for Hama. It was the death of a kind, smiling teenager… and the birth of a demon.

Hama waterbent at her father, trying to douse the flames feeding on his clothes and body, but it was no use. He hit his knees, a wild look in his blue eyes, and fell forward lying face down in the snow like the villain that had attacked her moments ago. A single arrow protruded from his back, the red feather adorning it snapping viciously in the wind.

She crumpled like paper in a fire, sobbing and screaming at him to get up. She knew he would not. The pain in her chest was like a ball of energy, expanding until it threatened to explode inside of her and rip her limb from limb. She wished it would. She did not want to exist in a world without her family, especially her dad.

She clambered to her feet and trudged through the snow banks, dropping next to him Hama pulled the arrow gently from his body. She rolled her father onto his back, her sleeves catching on fire, but she hardly took account of it. She stared into his open eyes, dead. "Oh God, no," She whimpered and leaned over him, burying her face in his charred coat, "God, no, no, no, please, no." She didn't know what else to say. Hama could only deny the possibility that her father had just been killed before her eyes. She sobbed into him, and the flames ascended up her arms. She heard a sound, and propped herself up, hoping ludicrously that her dad was sputtering back to life, but he showed no sign of returning to this temporal realm. She looked up and down his body and started to beat his chest with her small fists. "Wake up!" She screamed. "You wake up now!" She was in his face, tears falling, yelling at her deceased parent. "You have to! I can't take care of us without you!"_ Us_. Should she dare have faith in the notion that her mom was still alive?

"He's dead you little bitch. And you're next."

She tilted her head up slowly, her jaw open and locked, hair hanging in her face. She looked like something straight out of a horror story, a witch. Blood was still smeared across her mouth and flames were leisurely devouring her dampened coat. She cocked her head to the side, appearing nearly thoughtful, and the muscles around her eye twitched. The intruder held a bow in one hand and was reaching for another arrow, smiling. The bastard was _smiling. _Hama threw sanity out the proverbial window.

"No!" She screamed at the assailant. "YOU'RE NEXT!" Her promise, because that's what it was, echoed throughout the village with all the power of a raging spirit. An alien urge overtook her. It thrummed in her veins and controlled her limbs; it was frightening, how powerful and excited this beast was, as if it had laid dormant within her all these years. It darkened her soul and choked her heart; Hama drowned in vengeance.

Before he could draw an arrow, she had thrust her hand out and up in a slicing motion and he was thrown back by the unyielding weight of a wall of snow. It buried him in a heap, hundreds of pounds of nearly solidified water entombing him in an icy coffin. She watched, hysterically dissatisfied as she commanded the flakes to crystalize. Once the ice had sufficiently hardened, she turned back to her father and gripped the arrow lying guiltily at his side, tears wetting her face and slipping between her parted lips. She tasted blood on her tongue.

She kissed his cheek, whispering a soft goodbye not caring that the skin had bubbled grotesquely after being gnawed at by flames, and pushed herself up. Slowly, she turned towards the entombed soldier and approached, hatred coursing through her system. She leapt on top of the clear grave, watching with dispassion as the Fire Nation soldier suffocated. His eyes were still open, and so they would be until his body was degraded by natural forces or his comrades dug him out. She bowed her head, studying him silently. With a movement so quick that even she didn't know she had done it until it happened, Hama plunged the head of the arrow into the surface of the ice, directly above his head. She had never felt such anger before… never, spirits it was painful. If her thoughts had been coherent she would have been terrified of herself, and equally disgusted by her clouded judgment.

"There," She whispered through bared teeth, and she could have sworn she heard him scream. "Your own marker. Others might not have been so kind."

A strange smell reached her nostrils, and she yelped when she felt fire biting at her neck. She had forgotten that her coat was ablaze and now that the flames had reached the fur of her hood they seemed to engulf her entirely. She screamed and flung herself into the snow, rolling until the fire had been doused. In her fervor to keep herself from being scarred for life she had neglected to acknowledge the small squadron of soldiers drawing near.

They halted before her, dressed in the signature red with strange pearl colored masks covering their faces. Briefly, she wondered what it was they were trying to conceal. A monster by any other appearance is still a monster. Beauty can't shackle the truth.

She lay back, waiting for them to kill her. Waiting for them to torture her. Waiting for them to do something. Instead they seemed to gawk at the mess she had created, namely the live burial.

Two of the men staggered toward their fallen comrade in dismay and made moves indicating that they would try to melt the ice away before he died. The one at the front of the squad turned on them swiftly. "Leave him! I'll not have such a weakling under my command. Be it that he lost to a bender or not, he deserves to die for failing his Fire Lord and country, and let that be a lesson to you all! He's lucky I deem this an appropriate punishment, otherwise I would have dealt with him myself."

Hama took the little opening she had to fling another massive wall of snow at her attackers. The one in command didn't miss a beat, he blasted through the wall with what Hama assumed was no difficulty. She wouldn't have known because she was off and running, her survival instincts kicking into overdrive.

"After her!"

She hadn't been a minute into her escape when they brought her back, kicking, teeth gnashing and screaming like a wild thing. One drug her by the hood of her cloak, the others watched her warily, primed and expectant of a bending attack. Hama dug her boots into the snow and reached up to abuse the hands gripping her coat, hissing when she felt how hot to the touch they were, like a stove. He slung her around in front of him and she landed on her side, ready to leap to her feet again. She was completely and despairingly surrounded, all she saw was red.

The soldiers converged on her and bound her wrists and ankles, rendering her immobile and helpless. She panted, fear burning her insides to ashes.

"You should be afraid."

The one in charge had removed his mask, revealing an ugly, monstrous excuse of a face. His amber eyes reflected the light of the flames consuming her village. His teeth were yellowed and his gums were oddly colored, she assumed from a long life spent sailing and violating the oceans- resulting in a lack of proper nourishment.

Hama spat directly into that detestable face and wasn't surprised when he practically knocked her head off her shoulders with a solid punch. She cried out as she was pushed into the snow, wanting desperately to cradle her stinging ear, if she still had one to do so with; it felt like he had put a dent in her skull. The second time she had ever been physically assaulted.

"I don't like disrespect," Hama squeezed her eyes shut against the sound of his awful, grating voice, her brows drawn together so tightly they might as well have been one. "But I do like fighters. You just might live." He rounded on his men. "Take her to the ship, and put her in the brig with the rest. We'll finish up here."

Hama was yanked up and forward, metal restraints cutting into her skin. A growl bubbled in her throat, but its warning and ferocity was lost in the wake of her tears. As she was pushed along she couldn't seem to muster the mental energy to appreciate the ships docked along the shore. There were many. They polluted the pure, crisp air with their awful stench and thick smoke. She gagged involuntarily.

Her father was dead and she was being taken prisoner. Hama was sure it was all a terrible nightmare, the worst, most tangible dream she had ever endured. The pain in her chest was inconceivable; it was like a ball was being inflated inside of her ribcage, threatening to burst through her skeleton. She felt she would die the sorrow was so extreme. _Her father was dead. How could that be? _She honestly could not fathom how the world was able to function after being stripped of such a decent, good person.

She had hoped that fatigue would wash over her and blissfully steal her consciousness, but her senses were more attuned than ever. What pained her most was the sound of her friends and family crying helplessly, they were so powerless it was absurd. They were left defenseless; all the Waterbenders were being loaded like a herd of animals onto the massive steel Fire Nation vessels. _Spirits she wanted to vomit._

Hama was escorted up a plank, flanked by Fire Nation soldiers on all sides. There was no escape. It was over.

She turned at the last moment and observed her neighbors who had gathered below to weep and beg. She watched them with solemn defeat, tears hardening into icy rivulets on her cheeks. Her body convulsed with sobs. Her mother was nowhere to be found. The door to the ship was drawn up, and a violent darkness embraced her.

**A/N: AH! I'm so excited! My first full-fledged fanfic! I know I said I'd write a Tokka fanfic, but I found myself more interested in this idea. The story will not always be so dark- I plan on interjecting humor here and there, but I mean it's freaking Hama we're talking about here! Expect a lot of angst and dark (though it won't be overbearing) themes, especially since she'll be imprisoned during the start of the fic. Tell me what you think with a review! There's no point in me spending my precious time between college classes writing this if I can't tell whether people like the story or not. Really, that's all I'm asking for- I don't care if all you say is "This is Good" (which is actually kind of lame… but whatever!)- I'MA SHAMELESS REVIEW WHORE! I love getting them almost as much as I love giving them! If you need reviews as well and would like me to drop by your own FF page and check out a story, let me know! Hm… what else… uh, World Peace! Make it happen!**

**Oh, btw, I tried to stick to the canon plot with this scene (I watched the 'Puppet Master' episode for inspiration) but I also put little twists in there so it wouldn't be a play by play. I wanted to give it an 'Avatar: Uncut' feel… yeah, I like that. ;D**


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